Amber Hough
Contact: amberlita01@gmail.com
University/School: Northumbria University
View Amber’s Instagram & LinkedIn
About me
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About me _____
I am a 25 year old mother who grew up in the care system. I lost everything very early on and it taught me very quickly that nothing is permanent and you must put in the effort if you want something to work for yourself. I have been drawing since I could finger paint on my mums walls, however unimpressed she was, her and my foster carers have always encouraged my creativity. Without them and art I would not have become the designer with the work ethic that I have today. I have always been drawing, got into a lot of trouble for it at school, but I couldn’t imagine a world that I existed in, where art did not surround me.
When I was a wee old tween my foster carers took me to the Dior Museum in France and it changed my trajectory from only drawing and sculpting to making dresses. I don't think they could quite guess the path they opened up for me by doing that. But seeing how illustrations could turn into real dresses, seeing the videos of their movement and the whole atmosphere of the place was quite magical.
My mum had an accident when I was a child, leaving her rather physically disabled, this led me very early on to wanting to understand the brain and to try and help make the world as accessible to her and others like her as possible. One thing that has always come up is clothing. Clothing is not very accessible at all, from the shop layouts to the garments itself, and this is what I aim to improve in the future with my work. I think it would be really interesting to merge the knowledge of the brain with smart textiles/bio textiles similar to what’s being done in neuroscience at the moment and it may be a path I look to study in in the future. I will always still have my more outrageous pieces being made in the background for expression purposes but I also want to do something that helps others, not just me.
Inspiration
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Inspiration _____
Inspiration comes from many places, it all depends on what I'm feeling and wanting to express as to what boils to the surface.
In general I am inspired by tons of different things things I wouldn’t even know where it came from, but the things I always find myself actively looking to is nature, the brain, human experiences, history and emotions. I always want to tell a story, what’s the point in creating if it doesn’t make someone feel something, and generally there is a reason I picked up the pen, normally an over whelming emotion that I must understand. From this there’s always an interplay of the darker art style I grew up looking at, the nature were surrounded by, both the beauty and horror she possesses and history. All my work is a balance of these things.
I am a bit like a sponge when it comes to inspiration, I will go out of my way to look for the smaller things in the day to day life, but I find when creating I'll often remember things I may have only peered at briefly a few years ago and haven’t actively thought about since, these will reappear and become collaged into an idea or concept.
My work
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My work _____
“we are not conscious of most things until we ask ourselves questions about them. So stay curious.”
